NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has far exceeded its planned mission duration, revealing that the Moon holds surprises: ice deposits that could be used to support future lunar exploration, the coldest places in the solar system in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles, and that it is an active world that is shrinking, generating moonquakes and changing in front…
Tag: lunar exploration
China’s Chang’e 5 moon craft on a new mission: the sun
China’s Chang’e 5 moon mission – which successfully returned moon rocks to Earth in December, 2020 for the first time in 44 years – is now headed toward the Earth-sun Lagrange point, for the goal of making sun observations. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-change-5-moon-mission-extended-to-l1-sun…
3-D printing to pave the way for moon colonization
A research team from the Skoltech Center for Design, Manufacturing and Materials (CDMM) comprising 2nd year Ph.D. student Maxim Isachenkov, Senior Research Scientist Svyatoslav Chugunov, Professor Iskander Akhatov, and Professor Igor Shishkovsky has prepared an extensive review on the use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies (also known as 3-D-printing) in crewed lunar exploration. Their paper published in the journal Acta Astronautica…
Meet PitRanger: Tiny rover designed to probe the lunar underworld
Researchers have been busily building a prototype of a 33-pound (15 kg) lunar mini-robot, set to be the key instrument in a future mission aimed at capturing high-definition images of moon pits. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/meet-pitranger-a-tiny-rover-to-probe-lunar-underworld…
Image-based navigation could help spacecraft safely land on the moon
In order for future lunar exploration missions to be successful and land more precisely, engineers must equip spacecraft with technologies that allow them to “see” where they are and travel to where they need to be. Finding specific locations amid the moon’s complicated topography is not a simple task. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-image-based-spacecraft-safely-moon.html…
China’s Chang’e 5 mission is orbiting the moon!
China’s robotic Chang’e 5 will be the 1st sample-return from the moon since the 1970s. It launched successfully last week atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket. Now it’s reported to have entered orbit around the moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-moon-mission-change-5-sample-return…
China’s Chang’e 5 probe is the start of a new era of lunar exploration
Chang’e 5 is set to bring moon rocks back to Earth for the first time in more than four decades – and China has even more ambitious plans for lunar missions in the coming years Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833102-100-chinas-change-5-probe-is-the-start-of-a-new-era-of-lunar-exploration/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Video: Connecting Earth with the moon
Lunar exploration relies on the extensive expertise that is on hand across ESA. As a new lunar economy emerges, it will create new opportunities involving robots, habitats and transportation. Missions to the moon share similar communication and navigation needs that could be satisfied using a constellation of lunar satellites. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-video-earth-moon.html…
The International Space Station is 20 and going strong
20 years ago, three astronauts stepped aboard the ISS. It’s since hosted residents from many countries, creating humanity’s first history of living in space. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/20-years-iss-what-its-future-holds-nov-2-2020…
The moon is the perfect spot for SETI
In less than four years, NASA plans to land the first woman and the next man on the moon as part of Project Artemis. This long-awaited return to the moon is to be followed by the construction of the Lunar Gateway, the Artemis Base Camp and a program of “sustainable lunar exploration.” The creation of an enduring human presence on the…